Taking your wellness committee from Blah to Brilliant!

So you  have a Campus wellness committee formed and everyone is ready to meet.  What do you do now?  How do you a create a meaningful agenda that helps you and your group not waste their (and your) precious time on a committee meeting?  Keep it simple, relevant and realize that the meeting should not just be a venting session, but offer structure and action plans to move forward.  Be very clear as to why you are all there:  To improve student’s attendance, academic status and reduce behavioral issues by integrating a robust wellness program into your school day! There are a number of school health assessments on the internet, but maybe you don’t have time or resources to fill those out?   If you are running out of topics or need a few simple projects that make a huge impact, check out these 5 ideas!

1. What is YOUR committee’s top complaint/obstacle on keeping students engaged and attending class?

Although this seems broad, from our experience, it is usually a very good place to start.  Even if you can not solve the problem on your campus (say it is a district or legislative issue) , it does help to acknowledge the problem.  For example, one school recognized the food wastage issue at lunch as their top issue and passed that information along to us.  We presented the issue to the school health advisory board and this year we have pilots of food share tables in our schools.  We hope to expand the opportunity to all schools next year!  So talk about your main issues and decide where the decision-making level resides.  District level?  Send the issue to your School Health Advisory Council (SHAC).  They are looking for good agenda items too! Don’t know who your SHAC is?  If you are in Fort Bend County, send it to Watchyourwellness@gmail.com and we will connect you!

Pros:  Can help build relationships within the group because there is open and honest discussion.  Just talking about hot topic items can help provide a starting point for discussion.

Cons: May require $$, volunteers, time, expertise.   Can be frustrating if things don’t change.  If the problem is not easily solvable, identify the issue and send it up the chain for others to work on.

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2. Physical Activity in the School Day

Do you know how much physical activity is recommended in a student’s day?   60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise!   Physical Activity is an integral part of learning.  Just google ” physical activity and academic success in schools” and you will find a plethora of new research that shows amping up physical activity can dramatically improve learning, focus and attendance.  Depending on your student’s age, consider brainstorming ways to increase movement within and outside of the school day.  For elementary, it might be brain breaks – in middle and high school, it might be  “throwback” days that include “recess”.  Use your creativity to brainstorm and encourage fun, social and inclusive activities on your campus.

Pros:  Maximum return on your investment! Aligns with Profile of a Graduate.

Cons:  Requires scheduling the activity, volunteers, perhaps $$ for equipment, maybe training ( fitness clubs like Marathon Kids)

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3. Hydration

We live in Texas.  It is hot.  Drinking water from a water fountain is not considered cool by my kids, in fact they call it gross. So most schools have tried to encourage water bottles.  When our school nurses have done a hydration push, they found that trips to the nurse for stomach aches and headaches dropped significantly.   Increasing water consumption is another very impactful intervention not only during the school day but also in decreasing fatigue, social and emotional wellness and general health.

Pros:  Less visits to nurse.   Improving awareness, education and provision of water via waterbottles can hit a lot of learning areas:  Health, importance of water, prevention of sports related injuries, heat stroke as well as environmental impact ( clean water, reusing waterbottles).  Can also impact Healthy People 2020 goals of hydration and fruit intake if you make fun fruit water at lunch.  Required by USDA for lunchrooms.

Cons:  $$ for waterbottles.  Access to refilling station.   A lot more trips to the bathroom and unhappy teachers.  There are a lot of resources on the internet regarding children’s bladder growth and how to address bathroom privileges as well as the parent education component.

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4.  Breathing and Asthma related issues

A record number of children suffer from complication related to respiratory illness.  Do you have a spike in absences, nurses visits at a particular time of year or season?  Consider asking an allergist to visit and talk to your team on how you can optimize the learning areas within your school to minimize indoor air pollution.  Another big trending area is addressing idling buses and cars where students might walk or congregate as they enter and leave school.  Recent research shows that the small particulate matter in exhaust may be found in the lungs of younger students that walk right past the exhaust fumes ( especially related to height).  Also consider outside facilities, and whether mowing is done during school hours. For middle and high school consider offering asthma students training via American Lung Association to manage their disease.

Pros:  Very timely topic, also hits environmental science.  Depending on your incidence of asthma on campus, may see a dramatic improvement in attendance.

Cons: May not see an immediate change unless you measure at the right time.  Some interventions may be costly or require facilities to be involved.  May require some input from parents and district to change idling, or improving walk to school routes.

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5. Stress Prevention

Stress, Lack of Sleep, Test Anxiety are all the top obstacles to health as reported by WATCH schools since the question was introduced.  Recently, we are seeing more mindfulness activities integrated, however, many campuses are focusing more on staff than students.  There are a number of ways to help students and staff manage stress:  from dance parties, to extra recess, and  field trips to parks. Consider providing parents with more tools to understand their kids as they transition each year.  Having a “graduation” party for parents with constructive advice on how to manage expectations  in person or as a webinar may be a good way to help parents transition from elementary to middle to high school. Including “graduated” parents and kids would be a great way to provide peer advice.  Lastly, intentionally reducing busy work and homework over the weekends and holidays ( I know!  That is CRAZY talk!) AND promoting visiting parks to parents and students could be a way to reduce stress.

Pros:  Fun is the name of the game here!  Fits profile of a graduate.  Activities can help students and staff be less stressed. Promotes campus pride and unity.

Cons: Can take  up teaching time, requires staff and volunteer participation.  Parent education requires scheduling, planning and vetting of resources.  Requires parents who are willing to assist you in providing peer advice.

Obviously, there are a lot of other topics, but I hope this has given you some ideas to work get the conversation going and some action items to start working on!